Trade promotion is seen as one of effective measures to help remove enterprises’ hurdles in the current difficult period. In his recent visit to Binh Duong, Do Thang Hai, Head of the Trade Promotion Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that provincial Department of Industry and Trade (Dot) was very flexible in trade promotion, helping enterprises reach better development over the past time.   

Traditional craft products were displayed at the “Lai Thieu in ripe fruit season 2013” festival

From domestic market…

Nguyen Thi Tuyet Trinh, Director of the Center for Trade Promotion and Economics Information under provincial DoIT said: “In the first nine months of 2013, the center realized 9 out of 12 programs or 75% of the projection with a total expense reaching more than VND2.9bln or 71.1% of the projection”.

Realizing that consumption market is a vital thing for enterprises’ development, the center actively mobilized, supported 47 enterprises and 1 association to organize 80 pavilions at 9 expos held nationwide over the past nine months. At the expos, they promoted their products and reached a total revenue of nearly VND2.2bln.

The center has also implemented the campaign of “Vietnamese people give priority to using Vietnamese goods” in association with the program of “bringing Vietnamese goods to rural areas” and gained positive results. Over the past 9 months, the center teamed up with the People’s Committees of remote communes of Dau Tieng and Phu Giao districts to organize 7 market-days of “bringing Vietnamese goods to rural areas”. Each market-day lured around 18 enterprises with 43 booths and the total revenue of participating enterprises reached around VND3bln.

…to international market

Along with trade promotion in the domestic market, the center has paid attention to assisting enterprises to stabilize and expand their export markets. Mrs.Nguyen Thi Tuyet Trinh said that over the past nine months, the center advocated 5 enterprises to attend 3 expos at abroad. They signed 3 contacts worth more than US$250. Especially, the center held a delegation of provincial enterprises to take part in a survey on the US market for gifts. This trip also helped 3 enterprises sign contacts valued at US$300,000 with their partners.

In fact, province-based enterprises have managed to overcome difficulties by themselve in order to rise up and expand their markets. Tran Thanh Trong, Director of Sang Ban Mai Joint Stock Company said: “Defining that Myanmar is a new market full of potential, we have opened our affiliate in the country. The company also participated in the HCM City Expo 2013 in Myanmar’s Yangon city in mid June. At the expo, the company promoted its “Vietnam SBMPOWER” diesel electric generators with the capacity of 10KVA-2,500KVA, bringing it initial results in the process of penetrating Myanmar’s market.

Increase of financial support level for trade promotion needed

Vietnam’s State budget for trade promotion activities is very low, according to experts. Compared to export turnover, Binh Duong’s investment figure for trade promotion is still low.

At the meeting with Vu Huy Hoang, Minister of Industry and Trade in his recent visit to Binh Duong, province-based enterprises presented a petition on amending financial support level from the National Budget for national commercial promotion program.

It is known that economy faces difficulties and the local State budget is also very limited. But, Mrs.Nguyen Thi Tuyet Trinh still affirmed: “The center will still continue implementing 2013’s remaining trade promotion programs in accordance with the local State budget estimation”.

Reported by Bao Anh-Translated by K.T